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Operating Skills · Essential
POTA Rules and Compliance
What actually counts as a valid activation — and the handful of rules beginners get wrong.
~15 min · 0 of 9 checked
Run this checklist every activation. It is never marked finished — start fresh each time you head out.
How to use this page
This explains the POTA rules in plain language and flags the places new activators most often trip. It is not the rulebook. POTA maintains the rules and changes them — most recently on 10 July 2026. Every section here links to the official text, and where the two differ, POTA governs. POTA's own documentation says the same thing: if the rules section differs from any guide, the rules section wins.
On the air
POTA's own first line: participation is at your own risk of injury or death. The conditions of your license and all local and federal laws supersede anything in the POTA rules — or on this page. No POTA rule ever authorizes something your license or the law does not.1 · What counts as an activation
- 10 QSOs minimum, from a park on POTA's designated list, within a single UTC day
- Fewer than 10 is an attempt, not an activation — but submit the log anyway so your hunters get their credit
- Multiple sessions at the same park, same location, same UTC day combine into one activation. Six QSOs in the morning and five in the afternoon is a valid activation
Remember
The UTC day is the single most common beginner mistake. It is not your local day. An evening activation in the US rolls into the next UTC day partway through — split your contacts across that boundary and you can end up with two attempts instead of one activation. Log in UTC and know where midnight Zulu falls in your time zone.2 · Where you can operate
The core rule
- You and all of your equipment must be inside the park boundary and on public property
- The park must be open — meaning the public has civil and legal access, or a permit is obtainable
- Operating from a vehicle or RV parked on public property inside the boundary is fine
- You may not trespass on private property to reach public land
- You may not activate from private property, even if it's surrounded by the park
- Aeronautical activations count if you're in the airspace directly above the park
Remember
"All equipment" means all of it. A counterpoise trailing outside the line, a guy stake in the neighboring lot, or a car parked across the boundary all put you out of compliance. Straddling a park line or a state line means you are not fully inside — POTA calls this out explicitly.On the air
POTA's park maps are guidelines only. The official boundary is whatever the governing agency's website says it is. If you are operating anywhere near an edge, check the agency map — not the POTA map.Trails and rivers
- If a trail or river is a POTA entity in its own right — not part of a bounded land park — the rule changes
- You and your equipment must be on public property within 30.5 metres (100 feet) of the edge of the trail or river
- This is the only place POTA gives you a distance instead of a boundary
Two-fers and multi-park activations
- Permitted, but stricter than most people assume
- You and all equipment must sit entirely inside the overlapping intersection of every park you claim
- Being inside park A and near park B does not count — the boundaries must actually overlap where you are
- Submit a separate log for each park
3 · What counts as a contact
| Allowed? | Detail | |
|---|---|---|
| Any band or mode your license permits | Yes | Including the WARC bands — POTA is not a contest |
| Land repeaters | No | You may use a repeater to arrange a direct contact, but the logged QSO can't go through it |
| Satellite repeaters | Yes | Log the band of your transmit frequency |
| Relayed contacts | No | Both stations must hear each other well enough to log the callsigns themselves |
| Fully automated QSOs | No | Each contact needs direct action by both operators |
| Working yourself | No | CALL can't match your STATION_CALLSIGN or OPERATOR |
Power and exchange
- POTA sets no power limit — but your license class, band plan, and the minimum-necessary-power rule still apply
- There is no required exchange. POTA does not mandate any particular information in the QSO
- Most activators pass a signal report and the park reference; none of it is required by the rules
Remember
The relay rule exists because POTA is a sporting challenge, not traffic handling. If a third station passes a callsign or report between you and a hunter, that station is functioning as a repeater and the contact is invalid. Well-meaning help on a weak signal can cost you the QSO.4 · Spotting
- Self-spotting is explicitly allowed and is normal practice — post yourself on pota.app
- Anyone can spot or re-spot you, whether or not they've worked you
- Spots drop off roughly 30 minutes after the last spot, or when a spot comment marks you QRT
- Re-spot when you change band or mode; hunters filter on it
- Careful if you're double-dipping: some other programs prohibit self-spotting even though POTA permits it. Field Day is the usual case. Operate in the spirit of both
5 · Logging
- Only activators submit logs. Hunters never do — hunter credit is generated from the activator's log
- That makes log submission a courtesy owed to everyone who worked you
- There is no deadline, but don't sit on it
- One log covers one park in one location, even across multiple days
- Logs must be ADIF
Required ADIF fields
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| STATION_CALLSIGN or OPERATOR | Individuals may use either or both with the same call |
| CALL | The station you worked |
| QSO_DATE | UTC |
| TIME_ON | UTC |
| BAND | |
| MODE or SUBMODE | If both are given, submode wins |
What gets rejected
- Duplicates — uniqueness is the combination of your account, CALL, MODE, QSO_DATE, BAND, park references, and location
- Contacts dated in the future
- Working yourself
- Note that same station, different band or different mode, is not a duplicate
6 · Operating with other people
- Under a club or special-event call: use that call on the air and put it in STATION_CALLSIGN; the individual operator's call goes in OPERATOR. Both get credit. Upload through the club's POTA account, not a personal one
- Not under a club call: you must pass the mic and take turns. Each activator has to actually communicate with each of their own hunters to claim the contact
- Each operator keeps and submits their own log in that case
- Don't operate under someone else's callsign
Practice goal
The passing-the-mic rule was clarified on 10 July 2026. If you learned POTA group operating before then, this is the section worth re-reading at the source.7 · Which parks exist, and why yours might not
- New parks must be owned and operated by a State, Provincial, Federal, or National agency
- County and city parks don't qualify. Neither do privately operated or shared-ownership parks
- The park must publish a website with current boundary maps
- POTA doesn't create sub-parks inside an existing park under the same agency
- Report closures, access problems, or bad park data to help@parksontheair.com
Enforcement
POTA is self-regulated and community-monitored. There is no referee at the park. Violations can be reported to help@parksontheair.com, and POTA requires enough detail to establish the violation beyond doubt before acting. In practice this means the program runs on activators being honest about boundaries, contacts, and logs when nobody is checking.
Compliance check — before you call CQ
After the activation
Go to the source
Summarized from POTA Rules version 1.2, page last modified 10 July 2026. POTA changes its rules — check the official page before relying on anything here. HamCompass explains; POTA decides.
Summarized from the official Parks on the Air® Rules (docs.pota.app), version 1.2, page last modified 10 July 2026, and the POTA Activator Guide. HamCompass explains these rules; POTA defines them. Where this page and the official rules differ, the official rules govern. Read as of July 2026 — check the source before relying on any item here.